"Stuff is eaten by dogs, broken by family and friends, sanded down by the wind, frozen by the mountains, lost by the prairie, burnt off by the sun, washed away by the rain. So you are left with dogs, family, friends, sun, rain, wind, prairie and mountains. What more do you want?"
Federico Calboli

Sunday, August 12, 2012

For Annie D

Are Geladas different from true baboons?

UPDATE: She replies "Too different. That's why I broke up with him." (The Kapcha wouldn't let her in). She also made a point about aposematic coloration, convergent evolution, geladas, and black widow spiders--! Later, maybe...

I sent this, adapted from Wikipedia, to Annie: ""Since 1979, it has been customary to place the gelada in its own particular genus (Theropithecus), though some genetic research suggests [it] should in fact be grouped with its papionine kin; other researchers have classified this species even farther distant from Papio. While Theropithecus gelada is the only living species of its genus, separate, larger species are known from the fossil record... Theropithecus, while restricted at present to Ethiopia, is also known from fossil specimens found in Africa and the Mediterranean into Asia... [as far as India]"